Poor Man's Chronograph

[John]

Even though I am sure several of you members will have a chronograph (or have access to one), for those of us who do not, and who do not want to invest in one, the article below shows a good method to evaluate your Airsoft pistols BB's speed.

Poor Man's Chronograph for Airsoft (http://www.redwolfairsoft.com/redwolf/airsoft/BulletDetail?bulletID=34)

We plan to include a chrono test for each of the pistols we evaluate here, as soon as I find some ... coke cans.

Rgds

[Joni Lynn]

Would Pepsi cans work or would that invalidate the test? :):)

[John]

It all depends dear. If they are of approximate the same thickness as the coke cans, they should. I got a six-pack today, from the super market, and I plan to test the pistols I have, as soon as I can get someone to ... drink the contents (not a hard task, our 18-year old son never says no to anything which does not come out of a faucet).

[Reverend]

Hi John, I was wondering. I don't have access to a chrono. Can we use this method on Air Rifles? BBs and lead pellets are quite different. :o

[wichaka]

Would Pepsi cans work or would that invalidate the test? :):)


Joni, you're living up to your reputation again!

[Joni Lynn]

Thanks for noticing!

[Hawkmoon]

Hi John, I was wondering. I don't have access to a chrono. Can we use this method on Air Rifles? BBs and lead pellets are quite different. :o
The method described isn't for BBs or lead pellets -- it's for 6mm plastic airsoft pellets.

The same method might be adapted, if you had a chronograph to use for measuring the true velocity of the BBs or pellets from a specific gun. Once you know the actual velocity, you could fire the same gun and ammo at a Coke can and document the effect.

My guess is that BBs or lead pellets would zip right through a Coke can, so I doubt that the "test medium" is transferable.

[John]

I haven't the faintest idea. I assume that what this test measures is the ability of a projectile, to pierce the various walls on the can. Surely, as Hawk says, that ability will depend on the projectile itself, but I am not sure how much the material of the projectile will affect the test. As Hawk said, there is no way to tell, unless you establish some basis for the comparison.

[Moose63845]

My guess is that BBs or lead pellets would zip right through a Coke can, so I doubt that the "test medium" is transferable.
I can testify through much experiance killing defenseless Coke cans that BBs will fly through them like they're nothing. If you watch MythBusters you may have seen the episode where they shot through Auto windshield glass with a BB.

[pa_guns]

Hi

A ballistic pendulum is another way to estimate velocity of stuff like bb's and pellets. As long as you can weigh the bb's accurately it's not terribly hard to do.

The only trick is to fiddle with the weight of the pendulum until you get a swing that you can measure easily.

Bob